AUGUST ‘22 Health & Wellbeing Blog! Weight Loss & how to do it Properly!

Weight Loss & how to do it Properly!

There are so many advertised ways to lose weight that it can become confusing as to where to start. The current trends seem to be Intermittent Fasting (IF), Ketosis and the Carnivore diet to name just a few. Are these sustainable over a long period though? In my opinion, they are not. Believe me, I have tried just about every type of dieting programme out there. To maintain a healthy, aesthetically pleasing body in the long term is by being realistic and using sustainable eating habits. Call me old fashioned but for me, there is a simple formula that is required to lose weight – Calories consumed vs Calories burned!

That’s all well and good, and seems too simplistic and easy. That’s because it is; it is literally as simple as burning more calories each day than you consume. I don’t mean suddenly dropping 1000 calories each day, obviously this would enable any individual to lose weight but it is dangerous and unsustainable in the long term. You need to gradually cut the calories slowly but consistently. Like everything in life in my opinion, discipline and consistency are the key to any achievement.

If you are trying, have tried, or thinking about losing weight; you are not alone. Almost 70% of people in the UK say they try to lose weight all or most of the time. We almost all, every single year at some point, aim to lose weight.

Have you been trying to lose weight for a number of years with no success? Keep reading, I will explain the simplest method of them all without any of the unsustainable ‘fad’ diets.

The first thing you will need is a fitness tracker, I use a FitBit Charge 4 which I bought second hand from eBay for less than £40, it has already lasted over 6 months and works perfectly. The initial outlay is well worth the data that these watches offer you, trust me. It will track your steps, calories, heart rate, sleep and so on. The calorie burn may not be 100% accurate but it is close enough to give you the information you need to know how many calories you can consume each day. You don’t have to be constantly watching calories for months on end by the way, again, this would be unsustainable and I’m all about being realistic and practical.

I’m a firm believer that ANYBODY can completely change their life within a few months, if you are overweight and it constantly gets you down; imagine how you will feel in less than 3 months if you have shed all of your excess weight, look great and how energised, motivated and positive you would feel – it can literally be life changing! This would then spur you on for even more achievements!

Spend the first week getting used to your fitness watch, you will soon get a good grasp of how many calories you burn each day, how many steps you take etc. Once you have this information you are almost ready to go.

Just by monitoring your calories burned, steps taken etc, you will already be in a different mindset as you are now aware and conscious of this information. Whenever you reach for a sugary snack that you just know is bad for you and full of empty calories, you will take a look at the calories on the pack and automatically be thinking about it. You will already be noticing how on days when you are more active, the calories burnt count will rise, this will give you a sense of achievement which you will keep wanting to repeat. You are now firmly in this positive mindset.

The next stage is to monitor your calories consumed, this is everyone’s least favourite part, but it doesn’t mean agonisingly counting calories forever! You only need to count calories for roughly 4 weeks, purely to gain a rough understanding of the foods that you like and how big the portion sizes should be. After a month, you will simply know by looking, roughly how much of each food contains a certain number of calories. There is an app called MyFitnessPal which will count all of this for you that I use, you can even just scan the barcode of a certain item and it will add the calorie count and nutrient details up for you, it couldn’t be any easier.

You have to be completely honest on your calorie count for this to work, it is generally the small snacks that add the most calories so make sure you add them in.

To be completely transparent, below is a screenshot of my current weight and my target weight. Make sure, if you weigh yourself regularly, to do it at the same time each day. First thing in the morning is best before you have had any food or drink.

I weighed in and input my weight into the MyFitnessPal app on 4^th April, I weighed 81kg. My target weight is 78kg. I set my weekly goal at 0.25kg to lose each week, never set this above 1kg per week for the best and most realistic long-term results.

This then calculates your daily calorie target, to able to hit your weight by losing the specified amount each week. Therefore, for me, if I consume 2,468 calories each day, I will lose 1/4kg each week.

Once you hit your target weight, you simply change the goal weight to ‘maintain’, this will then give you your calorie amount to maintain your current weight.

It really is this simple to keep track of calories consumed vs calories burned!

If you have a bad day or even a bad week, don’t worry about it. Simply reset, weigh in and go again, you will reach your goals if you are disciplined and consistent!

I hope you gained some benefit from this blog and I look forward to engaging with you all throughout 2022.

Coach Sean